Local police say immigration enforcement a federal issue

Saturday

Nov 19, 2016 at 5:25 PMNov 19, 2016 at 5:25 PM

Zachary Comeau Daily News Staff @zwcomeau

MILFORD - The jury is out on whether President-elect Donald Trump will in fact order the mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country and the thousands who live in Milford and MetroWest communities, but area police departments say they are not in the business of enforcing immigration law.

Milford police have a working relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and on a handful of occasions every year will accompany the federal agency if it needs to apprehend someone in town.

And, like most police departments, Milford police will hold a suspect on an ICE warrant if they’re already in custody by Milford police for an unrelated crime.

Other leaders in so-called sanctuary cities do not hold undocumented immigrants on ICE detainer warrants, but Milford doesn’t fall into that category, O’Loughlin said.

On some occasions, O’Loughlin said police have called ICE if an undocumented immigrant has committed a “very serious” offense.

He pointed to the case of Nicolas Guaman, an Ecuadorean immigrant who was driving drunk, ran a stop sign and killed 23-year-old Matthew Denice on his motorcycle in 2011.

“I think that’s appropriate,” he said.

On simple misdemeanors or traffic offenses, O’Loughlin said its unlikely that ICE would get involved.

“I’ve never seen it,” he said.

O’Loughlin cited Trump’s interview on 60 Minutes, in which the billionaire-turned-politician said he plans to deport any undocumented immigrant with a criminal record.

“His focus is on people that have committed serious crimes or have gang involvement,” O’Loughlin said. “That’s really the program ICE has in place now.”

In Marlborough, Chief Mark Leonard said the city welcomes all residents to report crimes, regardless of their immigration status.

It remains to be seen how Trump’s immigration policy may affect local police departments, but Leonard said his department is not in the immigration enforcement business.

“It’s not a local issue,” he said.

Leonard said the issue can be tricky, as police “don’t want people to fear coming” to police for help, but they do assist ICE when they come to town.

“We walk a fine line on the local level,” he said. “We need things reported to us. The community really is our eyes and ears.”

So-called sanctuary cities, of which there are six in Massachusetts, have trust ordinances, which prevent police from holding an undocumented immigrant on an ICE detainer warrant, which is only a civil warrant, according to Amy Grunder, director of legislative affairs to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA),

Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, Lawrence, Amherst and Northampton all have trust ordinances that require a criminal warrant before an immigrant will be handed over to ICE, Grunder said,

“That’s the point of ordinances – to improve relationships between police and communities,” she said.

With Trump still two months away from being inaugurated, Grunder said it’s too early to tell how any federal policies may affect local policing, but there’s still fear in immigrant communities, according to immigration workers.

“People are afraid to send their kids to school or go to the doctor,” Grunder said. “There’s a lot of fear out there.”

Police in Framingham have seen that fear firsthand, resulting in some hesitancy to report crimes among the immigrant population.